'He is into fashion': Former Pakistan cricketer's BIG claim on Ishan Kishan's ouster from Team India

Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali opened up on Ishan Kishan's ouster from Team India setup. Kishan, who slammed a double century in ODIs in late 2022, was part of India's squad for majority of 2023 and travelled everywhere with the team before also being named in the 2023 ODI World Cup squad. However, he played only the first two games before being benched. Since then, the swashbuckling left-hander has fallen behind in the pecking order. The batter made a bold call to skip theSouth Africa tour in late 2023, soon after the ODI WC, due to travel fatigue. This wasn't well received by the BCCI management. Thus, Kishan was soon excluded from the central contract list and remains out-of-favour across formats to date.

In this regard, Basit opined on Kishan's ouster and said on his YouTube channel, "Ishan Kishan has fallen down the pecking order. Woh bhi thoda sa fashion mein lag gaya tha (He too got into fashion a bit)."

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Further, the Pakistani cricketer slammed Sri Lanka for their downfall -- who failed to enter the ODI and T20 WC semifinals and also haven't qualified for next year's Champions Trophy -- and poor form following their ongoing home T20I series loss versus India. "Sri Lanka deserved to not qualify for the Champions Trophy. It seems as if they are also more concerned about maintaining friendships, just as we have seen in the Pakistan team. My personal opinion is that their women's team have performed better (who won the 2024 T20 Asia Cup, beating India in the final on July 28). Sri Lanka's men's team should learn from the women's team how to keep the belief."

Speaking about Kishan, the left-hander needs to be among runs in India's upcoming domestic season to stand any chance of coming back into India's squad. The 26-year-old has played 2 Tests, 27 ODIs and 32 T20Is for India. He last played for India during their home five T20Is against Australia in Nov-Dec 2023.